No ink to print student transcripts as students are forced to study in tents

A senior examinations officer at Kisii University claims the Institution has not procured toner or ink cartridges to printexaminations transcripts for several of University’s students.

Some of the students completed their studies as early as August 2016, but they have never received transcripts for their first academic year. It is a shocking revelation raising several questions including how students are allowed to proceed to the next academic year without being given any provisional examination transcripts.

While in his Down Town office, the examination officer said his work was to facilitate the marks. When we further pressed him to give an exact date for the printing of the examination transcripts, the officer replied, “I don’t know when the procurement office will supply us with the toner.”

Students we spoke to said that they have held meetings with senior University Administration but nothing has changed.

The students at Down Town campus held a meeting on April 3, 2017 to try and resolve the issue. This however turned out to be another public relations exercise.
A parent who spoke to The Nairobian said she had visited the University several times to get the transcripts in vain.

“It is unfortunate that our children cannot access examination transcripts despite the fact that we have cleared tuition fees. This is incompetence and should not be allowed in a learning institution,” said the parent.

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Delays in releasing of examination results has become the norm in the institution. Students have held several protests over the years over this.

Another senior examination officer at the University’s Main Campus located a few kilometres from Kisii town said the problem could be with lecturers who withhold examination results due to non-payment of their salaries by the University.

“It is true we have several missing marks in our files. Some lecturers have transferred to other Universities before releasing the results. It is only the senior management that can demand for the results from the disgruntled lecturers,” said the officer who was recently transferred to the examination department.

But even as the University Vice Chancellors and their Councils retreated to Naivasha for a forum on University Education, students at Kisii University say more needs to be done at the institution to streamline its operations. Some of the students complain that they are forced study in tents placed behind the University faculty of Law block. The tents have been in place for more than a year.

Several Joint Admission Board (JAB) students are also forced to walk for more than three kilometers to take their classes in Kisii town’s central business district.

The students, majority in their second year taking Diploma and Degree courses in Education and Arts and Social Sciences, have to walk through the congested streets of Kisii town to attend classes.